Who shall impeach those whom God has chosen? God declares them free from guilt.

Who is there to condemn them? Christ Jesus died, or rather has risen to life again. He is also at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us.

nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which rests upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To them belongs recognition as God's sons, and they have His glorious Presence and the Covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the Temple service, and the ancient Promises.

To them the Patriarchs belong, and from them in respect of His human lineage came the Christ, who is exalted above all, God blessed throughout the Ages. Amen.

Not however that God's word has failed; for all who have sprung from Israel do not count as Israel,

In other words, it is not the children by natural descent who count as God's children, but the children made such by the promise are regarded as Abraham's posterity.

and even then, though they were not then born and had not done anything either good or evil, yet in order that God's electing purpose might not be frustrated, based, as it was, not on their actions but on the will of Him who called them, she was told,

What then are we to infer? That there is injustice in God?

And from this we learn that everything is dependent not on man's will or endeavour, but upon God who has mercy. For the Scripture said to Pharaoh,

"Why then does God still find fault?" you will ask; "for who is resisting His will?"

Nay, but who are you, a mere man, that you should cavil against GOD? Shall the thing moulded say to him who moulded it, "Why have you made me thus?"

And what if God, while choosing to make manifest the terrors of His anger and to show what is possible with Him, has yet borne with long-forbearing patience with the subjects of His anger who stand ready for destruction,

And in the place where it was said to them, 'No people of Mine are you,' there shall they be called sons of the everliving God."

Even as Isaiah says in an earlier place, "Were it not that the Lord, the God of Hosts, had left us some few descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and have come to resemble Gomorrah."

Brethren, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God, on behalf of my countrymen is for their salvation.

For I bear witness that they possess an enthusiasm for God, but it is an unenlightened enthusiasm.

Ignorant of the righteousness which God provides and building their hopes upon a righteousness of their own, they have refused submission to God's righteousness.

that if with your mouth you confess Jesus as Lord and in your heart believe that God brought Him back to life, you shall be saved.

And how are men to preach unless they have been sent to do so? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good!"

But, some will say, they have not all hearkened to the Good News. No, for Isaiah asks, "Lord, who has believed the Message they have heard from us?"

I ask then, Has God cast off His People? No, indeed. Why, I myself am an Israelite, of the posterity of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not cast off His People whom He knew beforehand. Or are you ignorant of what Scripture says in speaking of Elijah--how he pleaded with God against Israel, saying,

But what did God say to him in reply? "I have reserved for Myself 7,000 men who have never bent the knee to Baal."

In the same way also at the present time there has come to be a remnant whom God in His grace has selected.

How then does the matter stand? It stands thus. That which Israel are in earnest pursuit of, they have not obtained; but God's chosen servants have obtained it, and the rest have become hardened.

And so Scripture says, "God has given them a spirit of drowsiness--eyes to see nothing with and ears to hear nothing with--even until now."

and if their lapse is the enriching of the world, and their overthrow the enriching of the Gentiles, will not still greater good follow their restoration?

This is true; yet it was their unbelief that cut them off, and you only stand through your faith.

Do not be puffed up with pride. Tremble rather--for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.

Notice therefore God's kindness and God's severity. On those who have fallen His severity has descended, but upon you His kindness has come, provided that you do not cease to respond to that kindness. Otherwise you will be cut off also.

Moreover, if they turn from their unbelief, they too will be grafted in. For God is powerful enough to graft them in again;

and if you were cut from that which by nature is a wild olive and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more certainly will these natural branches be grafted on their own olive tree?

In relation to the Good News, the Jews are God's enemies for your sakes; but in relation to God's choice they are dearly loved for the sake of their forefathers.

For God does not repent of His free gifts nor of His call;

For God has locked up all in the prison of unbelief, that upon all alike He may have mercy.

Oh, how inexhaustible are God's resources and God's wisdom and God's knowledge! How impossible it is to search into His decrees or trace His footsteps!

"Who has first given God anything, so as to receive payment in return?"

I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the compassionsof God, to present all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to Him. This with you will be an act of reasonable worship.

And do not follow the customs of the present age, but be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds, so that you may learn by experience what God's will is--that will which is good and beautiful and perfect.

For through the authority graciously given to me I warn every individual among you not to value himself unduly, but to cultivate sobriety of judgement in accordance with the amount of faith which God has allotted to each one.

Relieve the necessities of God's people; always practise hospitality.

Let every individual be obedient to those who rule over him; for no one is a ruler except by God's permission, and our present rulers have had their rank and power assigned to them by Him.

Therefore the man who rebels against his ruler is resisting God's will; and those who thus resist will bring punishment upon themselves.

For he is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do what is wrong, be afraid. He does not wear the sword to no purpose: he is God's servant--an administrator to inflict punishment upon evil-doers.

Why, this is really the reason you pay taxes; for tax-gatherers are ministers of God, devoting their energies to this very work.

Let not him who eats certain food look down upon him who abstains from it, nor him who abstains from it find fault with him who eats it; for God has received both of them.

He who regards the day as sacred, so regards it for the Master's sake; and he who eats certain food eats it for the Master's sake, for he gives thanks to God; and he who refrains from eating it refrains for the Master's sake, and he also gives thanks to God.

But you, why do you find fault with your brother? Or you, why do you look down upon your brother? We shall all stand before God to be judged;

for it is written, "'As I live,' says the Lord, 'to Me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall make confession to God.'"

So we see that every one of us will give account of himself to God.

For the Kingdom of God does not consist of eating and drinking, but of right conduct, peace and joy, through the Holy Spirit;

and whoever in this way devotedly serves Christ, God takes pleasure in him, and men highly commend him.

Do not for food's sake be throwing down God's work. All food is pure; but a man is in the wrong if his food is a snare to others.

As for you and your faith, keep your faith to yourself in the presence of God. The man is to be congratulated who does not pronounce judgement on himself in what his actions sanction.

And may God, the giver of power of endurance and of that encouragement, grant you to be in full sympathy with one another in accordance with the example of Christ Jesus,

so that with oneness both of heart and voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Habitually therefore give one another a friendly reception, just as Christ also has received you, and thus promote the glory of God.

My meaning is that Christ has become a servant to the people of Israel in vindication of God's truthfulness-- in showing how sure are the promises made to our forefathers--

and that the Gentiles also have glorified God in acknowledgment of His mercy. So it is written, "For this reason I will praise Thee among the Gentiles, and sing psalms in honour of Thy name."

May God, the giver of hope, fill you with continual joy and peace because you trust in Him--so that you may have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

But I write to you the more boldly--partly as reminding you of what you already know--because of the authority graciously entrusted to me by God,

that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles, doing priestly duties in connexion with God's Good News so that the sacrifice--namely the Gentiles--may be acceptable to Him, being (as it is)

I can therefore glory in Christ Jesus concerning the work for God in which I am engaged.

with power manifested in signs and marvels, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. But--to speak simply of my own labours--beginning in Jerusalem and the outlying districts, I have proclaimed without reserve, even as far as Illyricum, the Good News of the Christ;

making it my ambition, however, not to tell the Good News where Christ's name was already known, for fear I should be building on another man's foundation.

But at present I am going to Jerusalem to serve God's people,

for Macedonia and Greece have kindly contributed a certain sum in relief of the poor among God's people, in Jerusalem.

But I entreat you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love which His Spirit inspires, to help me by wrestling in prayer to God on my behalf,

in order that if God be willing I may come to you with a glad heart, and may enjoy a time of rest with you.

May God, who gives peace be with you all! Amen.

that you may receive her as a fellow Christian in a manner worthy of God's people, and may assist her in any matter in which she may need help. For she has indeed been a kind friend to many, including myself.

to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister and Olympas, and to all God's people associated with them.

Your fidelity to the truth is everywhere known. I rejoice over you, therefore, but I wish you to be wise as to what is good, and simple-minded as to what is evil.

And before long, God the giver of peace will crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

To Him who has it in His power to make you strong, as declared in the Good News which I am spreading, and the proclamation concerning Jesus Christ, in harmony with the unveiling of the Truth which in the periods of past Ages remained unuttered,

but has now been brought fully to light, and by the command of the God of the Ages has been made known by the writings of the Prophets among all the Gentiles to win them to obedience to the faith--

to God, the only wise, through Jesus Christ, even to Him be the glory through all the Ages! Amen.

Paul, called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God--and our brother Sosthenes:

To the Church of God in Corinth, men and women consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all in every place who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-- their Lord as well as ours.

May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God continually on your behalf for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus--

so that there is no gift of God in which you consciously come short while patiently waiting for the reappearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

God is ever true to His promises, and it was by Him that you were, one and all, called into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius--

Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the Good News; and not in merely wise words--lest the Cross of Christ should be deprived of its power.

For the Message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are on the way to perdition, but it is the power of God to those whom He is saving.

Where is your wise man? Where your expounder of the Law? Where your investigator of the questions of this present age? Has not God shown the world's wisdom to be utter foolishness?

For after the world by its wisdom--as God in His wisdom had ordained--had failed to gain the knowledge of God, God was pleased, by the apparent foolishness of the Message which we preach, to save those who accepted it.

but to those who have received the Call, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because that which the world deems foolish in God is wiser than men's wisdom, and that which it deems feeble in God is mightier than men's might.

For consider, brethren, God's call to you. Not many who are wise with merely human wisdom, not many of position and influence, not many of noble birth have been called.

But God has chosen the things which the world regards as foolish, in order to put its wise men to shame; and God has chosen the things which the world regards as destitute of influence, in order to put its powerful things to shame;

and the things which the world regards as base, and those which it sets utterly at nought--things that have no existence--God has chosen in order to reduce to nothing things that do exist;

to prevent any mortal man from boasting in the presence of God.

But you--and it is all God's doing--are in Christ Jesus: He has become for us a wisdom which is from God, consisting of righteousness and sanctification and deliverance;

And as for myself, brethren, when I came to you, it was not with surpassing power of eloquence or earthly wisdom that I came, announcing to you that which God had commanded me to bear witness to.

so that your trust might rest not on the wisdom of man but on the power of God.

But in dealing with truths hitherto kept secret we speak of God's wisdom--that hidden wisdom which, before the world began, God pre-destined, so that it should result in glory to us;

But--to use the words of Scripture--we speak of things which eye has not seen nor ear heard, and which have never entered the heart of man: all that God has in readiness for them that love Him.